One million and 250K euros in 8 days. The crowdfunding campaign that Soisy has made through Two Hundred Crowd was a great success, the result of the excellent synergy between the two companies both members of Fintech District. Let’s find out how it was possible to achieve this result together with Pietro Cesati, CEO and founder of Soisy.
When and why did you decide to launch the crowdfunding campaign with 200Crowd?
The campaign, launched on the 200crowd portal, was part of a plan for a capital increase of 1.25 million euros. Initially, our goal was to raise a maximum of 900K euros through equity crowdfunding and use other channels for the remaining amount.
However, the campaign immediately exceeded our expectations. We had set a record for the crowdfunding of a fintech company which had never been seen before. We reached the maximum limit in just 7 days and, when we reopened the campaign, we collected the 1.25 million euro aimed for in a couple of hours
It was quite natural to choose 200Crowd. We are both based in the Fintech District, we know them personally and know they work very well, because they take care of the campaigns they manage and can rely on a solid network of investors.
They are also among the first equity crowdfunding sites in Italy and have a huge passion for the fintech, just talk to them to understand this! The choice was therefore very easy.
More than 500 thousand euros in one day. Did you expect it?
We were very optimistic about the minimum share: we had foreseen that the campaign would last until January and, boasting a 500% annual growth rate, we counted on being able to convince investors.
What really surprised us was the final result and, above all, the timing: 24 hours for 500K euros, 7 days for 900K and just 8 days for 1.25 million euros. Fantastic! Too fast to realize it and be happy!
Now our goal is growth. We have to work hard to repay the trust investors have given us.
How will you use the money collected?
We have chosen to make this capital increase after having intercepted some signals from the market. Currently we are the only company in Italy to offer marketplace lending as in the rest of Europe there is not yet a well-defined competitive horizon . At the same time loans in Italy required for purchases in physical stores reach 23 billion euros while those requested online for purchases on e-commerce are close to zero. Many of our customers have also started asking us to offer our hire purchase with Soisy abroad.
Taking this into account, we understood that our strategy had to be directed in two parallel directions: a rapid growth of our business to exploit the absence of competitors, and an expansion towards the European market to meet the demands of our customers and start to build a strong presence abroad.
By 2019 we plan to reach and enter at least 2 European countries: e-commerce is mainly asking us to finance customers from UK, Germany and France. However, our expansion strategy has not yet been defined in detail and, by participating in StartupBootCamp in Amsterdam, we want to learn how best to manage it.
Soisy today in numbers and goals for the new year
Currently we have a growth of 20% per month and about 500% per year. Since deciding to focus on the e-commerce lending marketplace, in the second half of 2017 we financed, thanks to about 600 savers, more than 2000 customers allowing them to buy with installments on almost 100 e-commerce and partner stores, mainly in furniture, fashion and sport sectors.
The break even is scheduled for 2021, so at the moment our main objective is to graduate our business model through internationalization so as to position ourselves as market leader at a European level. .
As you said before, you have also been selected for StartupBootcamp. What do you expect from this program ?
This is a great opportunity. The StartupBootcamp acceleration program in Amsterdam is one of the most important in the world for fintech. The fact of being one of the 10 startups selected out of more than 500 companies from all over the world gives us a very important feedback on our choices
We believe that joining this program will allow for important developments in terms of internationalization and will help us to intercept foreign e-commerce and institutional investors faster.
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